Off-balance-sheet financial instruments and non-recognized assets
In addition to the assets shown in the consolidated balance sheet, DB Group also uses off-balance-sheet financial instruments and assets that are not recognized in the balance sheet.
To a small extent, we lease assets of low value or on a short-term basis for which no right of use or leasing liability must be taken into account under IFRS 16.
We also use factoring to sell smaller volumes of receivables (as of December 31, 2020: € 613 million; as of December 31, 2019: € 685 million).
With regard to the company pension scheme for employees, the obligations under each retirement scheme are, to some extent, covered and netted by plan assets which are capable of being netted. As of December 31, 2020, total obligations amounted to € 12,518 million (as of December 31, 2019: € 12,749 million) and the fair value of plan assets was € 4,854 million (as of December 31, 2019: € 6,034 million). The balancing process leads to a reduction in total assets. The net obligation recognized as of December 31, 2020 on the balance sheet was € 6,517 million (as of December 31, 2019: € 5,354 million).
Further information in the section Basic principles and methods.
